In April, we will be exploring the theme of moving beyond ourselves to an ever more open love of God and Neighbor. We will also deepen our commitment to the Welcoming Prayer as a contemplative practice. Our online speaker will be Fr Martin Laird, O.S.A. Many of you have loved Fr. Martin’s annual conferences over the years. We are thrilled that he will join us in April to help us avoid falling into the trap of a spirituality “co-opted into a highly attractive, egoic enterprise.” –Laird

In this presentation Fr. Martin will address some of the subtler obstacles to the radical decluttering of the mind. Topics include: judging our practice; boredom; trying too hard to make something 'spiritual' happen; the dangers of progress; turning ourselves into our own contemplative project; the commodification of contemplation.

In his third volume on contemplative prayer, An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation, Fr. Martin Laird draws parallels between the teachings of Thomas Merton and a powerful address by Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Dr. Williams is quoted as saying "contemplation is the only ultimate answer to the unreal and insane world that our financial systems and our advertising culture and our chaotic and unexamined emotions encourage us to inhabit. To learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need so as to live truthfully and honestly and lovingly." 

Martin Laird, O.S.A, is Professor of Early Christian Studies at Villanova University. Laird is the author of several books on early Christian thought and Christian contemplative life, including Into the Silent Land,  A Sunlit Absence and An Ocean of Light. He lectures widely throughout the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland.  

Fr. Martin Laird’s teachings on contemplation as a means to 'liberate us from the seeds of violence in our own hearts' are needed now more than ever. We hope you will join us for this online experience of contemplative intimacy without borders in April.